Russia v Chile

Round-Robin

Match Report

The last game of the day followed a similar scenario, with host team Chile playing off their pace now that their hopes of reaching the Final had evaporated, and minnow Russia putting up a good show hoping to grab their first point of the competition.

The game was even in first period, with chances at both ends. The crowd was kept entertained, although they would certainly have preferred to celebrate Chilean goals. The deadlock was finally broken in the 48th minute by Evgeny MOKROUSOV making the best of a good pass by Alexey MAMOSHKIN. With an increased sense of urgency in the Chilean ranks, the game became rougher and both teams received yellow cards.

Chilean Captain Felipe was trying hard, constantly bringing back the danger in front of the Russian goal with his long runs, but not much was going Chile’s way and they spoiled a few penalty-corners and were further denied by a miraculous save by Roman ROGOV in the Russian goal, somehow managing to stop the ball on a goalmouth scramble.

Sensing their first point of the competition, the Russians kept well their composure and their defensive organization, but could not prevent Alan STEIN from tying the game in the 65th minute with a superb reverse stick shot in a tight angle. The joy of the home crowd was short-lived as Dmitry AZAROV immediately gave back the lead to his team on a deserved penalty-stroke.

The end of game was extremely tense, but Russia maintained the narrow margin to earn their first win of the competition. The blow was on the other hand tough for Chile: they have to meet India on the last day of pool play, while Russia will play against Russia, and could very well end-up in the 5th-6th place classification game, very far from what they were expecting at the onset of the event.